Dr Kim Howells, the new Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting

The scheme will help provide training, education and various film production ventures as well as ensuring facilities for screening such films are available all over England.

Dr Howells hailed the fund as an "excellent example" of cooperation between the Film Council and the regions.

Consultation

"It will ensure that everybody has the opportunity to learn about film or watch a broad range of movies, wherever they live," he said.

RIFE was set up after consultation carried out last year with a national seminar and nine regional seminars.

Screen East has been launched as the first regional agency set up under the initiative and one of the first to receive funding.

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John Woodward, Film Council chief executive, said that Screen East was only the first of "many" such regional partnerships set to be up and running in the coming months.

"Strong regional film agencies are increasingly important to the film industry and invaluable to regional film culture," he said.

The Film Council was set up last year in order to revive the British film industry.

Its chairman, Alan Parker, whose films include The Commitments, Evita and Angela's Ashes, said at the time that they would help film-makers "move away from the cottage industry that we all currently work in".

The Film Council is responsible for all government funding, including lottery money, for film with the exception of the National Film and Television School.